A crew of Flylow friends, athletes and founders recently went on a hut trip to Tahoe's Lost Trail Lodge, which is a four-mile backcountry skin from the town of Truckee, California. To call it a "hut trip" is probably a misnomer. The lodge sleeps 20 -- in beds, with sheet and blankets (no sleeping bags and Thermarests here) -- and comes with a professional-grade kitchen, several jacuzzi tubs, a piano and quiver of fiddles for impromptu backcountry jam sessions.

Just out the door from the lodge lies endless backcountry terrain that stretches from the backside of Sugar Bowl ski area to the Pacific Crest Trail and beyond. We spent two days there enjoying some mighty fine Sierra corn. Here are some pictures from the trip.

It’s a well-known fact that this winter has started off slow for us skiers in the lower 48. While it was easier to cope with the lack of snow before Christmas, once the New Year hit, I decided it was time to take action and seek out snow. While some have traveled to Alaska, Canada, Europe, and Japan, I didn’t quite have that time or budget, so after scouring the weather and finding a willing ski partner, we headed north: first stop central Oregon.

Busting out of Tahoe on the 1^st day of 2012, it was eerily warm, we made quick time up to the Oregon border where we saw our first dusting of snow on one of the higher passes east of Shasta. We rolled into Bend that evening and met up with some local skiers who were injured, but gave us some beta. The next morning, we headed up to Mt. Tumalo, a quick backcountry jaunt across from Mt. Bachelor. It was windy, but the skies were mostly clear. A mellow skin amongst the trees led us to the summit where we could witness the wind piling the snow into the northeast facing bowl. “Game on” we thought as we transitioned, did a quick snow assessment and dropped in. The first powder turns of the season -- so effortless and fun. We skinned back up for five more laps, upping the ante each time and connecting with a local professional skier and photographer. Small cliffs, then doubles, then a 30-footer, and finally a few flips off a natural kicker; we finished the day with high fives, snow on our goggles, and some new friends (all photos by Court Brock).

a windy skin

small hits to warm up

oh yeah, that's the stuff!

big hits with deep landings

stoke rubbing off! time to throw some backies!

We headed back to Bend to refuel and plan our next destination and ended up at Deschutes Brewery where the atmosphere was buzzing from a combination of locals night (1/2 off!), the Ducks playing in the Rose Bowl, and the fact that it was the last night open for a few months and they were planning on knocking the wall down that evening to kick off the remodel. The Bend locals seemed to welcome us and we even found a place to crash for the night and hatched a plan for the next day -- central Oregon was paying off so far, why leave a good thing?

The next morning we headed to the Three Creeks Sno Park to access the Tam McArthur Rim. We knew it was a long approach on a snow-covered road best done by snowmobile. We also knew there were yurts back there, but they were booked last time we checked. So the plan was to head up there, skin out to the base of the ridge, waving down a snowmobile for a tow if possible, and then ski out the road that evening by headlamp. Until we met Shane, who runs the Three Sisters Backcountry Huts on the road in. He had a group book both huts, but there were five no shows and one heading out that day. He offered us a ride in to the yurts and the chance to stay there for free. He even went back to our truck and got our sleeping bags and a change of clothes for us while we were out skiing! We couldn’t believe our luck so far in Oregon.

With our new friends, we headed up to the top of Tam McArthur Rim and checked out a zone called the Playground. It had great terrain and soft snow. With a rare windless day in the Cascades, we decided to leave the group and do a more scenic tour of the Sisters Range and headed out to ski Broken Hand and Ball Butte. It was a slog, but a beautiful one.

heading out to Broken Top (Photo by Court)

chalky snow on Broken Hand

skiing amid a volcano sunset

making the most of the short days and good snow

With no snow to even tour on in Tahoe, it was just what we needed -- a full day out in the mountains. Back at the yurts, we enjoyed a gourmet meal prepared by our new friends.

the beautiful three sisters yurt

The next day we focused on objectives closer to the hut, hitting a sunny line in the morning and numerous lines in the Playground -- skiing and skinning until our legs gave out on any landings we tried.

sunny soft lines on Tam McArthur

last round of soft turns in the Playground

Skiing out the 5.5-mile road was quick and we thanked Shane in the parking lot for a memorable time and headed back to Bend for a quick soak in the Turkish baths before the long drive back to Tahoe. Both of us were reluctant to leave since there was still great snow out there and central Oregon had treated us so well, but it was time to get back to Tahoe. But right before we crossed the border back into California, I had to make one last stop -- to buy a lottery ticket in Oregon because that is how lucky skiing powder with friends in beautiful places makes you feel. —Meghan Kelly

Photo by Chris Benchetler

A few weeks ago the powder drought was getting ready to really set in and we were already feeling the need to find it.  I was riding the lift with evo.com founder and pro skier Bryce Philips when he got a call from world renowned photographer, Adam Clark, inviting him on a heli trip to Juneau, AK.

The deal was that Adam had secured a private heli and need to fill four seats.  I got invited.  Now I just had to get a plane ticket to Alaska, because, when it snows 15' and you can work on the road (cell phone and a computer) you cash in your miles and go.

The only concern we had was, who is going to fill the final spot in the heli.  I got lucky and was ready to go when Bryce invited me.  The fourth seat was filled by none other then Chris Benchetler.

We flew to AK and the clouds never lifted above 5,000 feet.  The good snow was from 8000 to 4000 feet.  We were out of luck.  I spent my time working from a heli hangar in AK, boots on the flight deck, beacon drill done and out of the way.  We never flew, but, it was an experience.

-flylowdan

Event Director Rodrigo Vera diagrams the route...

FlyLow Athlete Claire Smallwood recently won for the women atAVALANCHA EN EL VOLCAN in Pucón, Chile, a race down an active volcano.

The general idea of the competition came from years of Pucón locals hiking and skiing the 9,341 foot volcano Villarrica. It's often on the tick list of ski travelers from all over the world. It offers at least a 5000 foot descent from any of its aspects. Vera hopes that in the future the contest will offer categories of timed ascent/descent, as well as to include other "tour stops" with contests on Chile's other iconic volcanoes in the area: LLaima, Lonquimay, Osorno, and perhaps the crown jewel (not for the faint at heart), Lanín on the border between Argentina and Chile.

My whole role in the whole thing was quite rad, actually! I was asked by Vera to be the marketing director for the event. I learned a ton about CHILE in the process and my Spanish got a lot better. Here I am doing the athlete check-in the morning of the event.

The mass ascension up the volcano

The event was designed so that everyone would have a chance to see the course before racing down at mach 10. Some people boot-packed, others chose to skin. The idea was to take tons of time to let the snow warm up a bit and make sure no one was super fatigued for the race down.

The view into the crater...

The top of the volcano was sunny and stinky! The sulphuric fumes made everyone cough and my eyes even burned a little the next day. A bandana was pretty useful, but nonetheless, an incredible experience to be that close to MAGMA!

Above is me doing a  last-minute scrape on my skis to ensure the smooth ride down. I knew the snow at the finish line was going to be super sticky!

The first rider about to drop in...

And coming into a screaming stop at the finish!

Have you read your FlyLow tag lately? It says to drink cold beer. Check! 

Thanks to Newen Beer there was tons of cold ones waiting for the riders at the finish line. Federico Nekis won for the snowboaders, Chopo Diaz won for the male skiers, and I won for the ladies!

Super huge thanks to all the sponsors who made this event possible:
PATAGONIA - GRASSAU - ENJOY - HOSTEL ETNICO - Rossignol - Newen - Redbull - BCA - Aguaventura - Philippe Botueille (Director de Seguridad) Whiteworld Adventures - Mun. Pucón - Conaf - SheJumps.org

With all the hype circling around the upcoming movie releases, the "Eye of The Condor" video and photo contest just went off in La Parva, Chile and judging by the videos, the snow was in pretty good condition. Flylow was a sponsor of the event, so enjoy the flicks!

The winning video:

2011 Eye of the Condor Video from the Dubsatch Collective from Eye of the Condor on Vimeo.

Another one with some good pow shots:

2011 Eye of the Condor Video from Discrete from Eye of the Condor on Vimeo.

Visit http://www.laparva.cl/eotc/ and skiingmag.com for more information on the event.

Backcountry skiing on the 4th of July offered all-time conditions this year, thanks to a plentiful La Niña snowpack that's lingering well into the summer. Flylow's grassroots team member Geoff Maly skied Oregon's South Sister, part of Three Sisters, near Bend, over the weekend. "We skied from the top to the car, amazingly," Maly reported afterward. "It was hot as all hell and somehow I got sunburned on the underside of my arms." This picture is of Maly skiing the south face of South Sister with Broken Top in the background.

Hope some of you got out to ski over the weekend too.

We recently went to Hong Kong and mainland China to check in with some of our factories over there. In addition to eating some tasty Peking duck and all-you-can-eat-and-drink teppanyaki, Flylow co-founder Greg Steen and I kept busy in meetings, traveling to various fty's (that's factories in the lingo) and finishing our designs for fall 2012. We watched the seam-tape testing for waterproof fabrics and seams, we saw graphic plotting machines, cutting rooms, stitching and quality control. At bigger companies, trips like this are usually done by contract workers, but here at Flylow, instead of hiring foreign agents, it made more sense for us to go ourselves to check it out. This is our fourth trip to China in recent years—it wasn't the tastiest trip we've had over there, but we sure did get a lot done. Here are some photos of the trip overseas.

Greg Steen, clearly an expert on fabrics based on his shirt choice, checking out fabrics in China.

A few items from our fall 2012 line on display.

You can see our Higgins jacket and BA Puffy on the rack in the back.

Of course we had to check out the local cuisine while we were there.

A group of Flylow-wearing skiers just returned from a trip to eastern Oregon's Wallowa Alpine Huts.

Here is Megan Michelson's report of the trip:

"I just returned from a four-day yurt trip in eastern Oregon’s Wallowa Mountains. When most people think of eastern Oregon, steep lines and deep powder probably aren’t the first things that come to mind (potatoes and flat plains, perhaps?). But, picture this: 35 inches of snow in four days, a forest of perfectly-spaced burnt trees, and a two-story yurt that sleeps 10 comfortably in bunks around a wood-burning stove.

The first day, we got a six-mile snowmobile tow in from the trailhead, then skinned the remaining two miles and 2,000 vertical feet up to the yurt in Norway Basin. The teepee-like structure was buried in a marshmallow of snow when we got there and the flakes just kept falling. Low visibility and avy danger limited us to mainly lower-angle tree stashes, but the snow was deep enough to keep us entertained.

On our last morning, the clouds parted to reveal the high-alpine terrain that towers above the yurt, steep, varied peaks that rise from the basin floor and shoot into the sky. Here are a few shots from the trip."

To read more of Megan's writing go to: MeganMichelson.com

At home I was usually the kid coming up with the bad ideas, but here at the PW’s in Utah I can barely keep pace. Noah and Andy are always up to something and when Andy rushed off with my brand new sticks and bindings to mount them at 7:00pm I didn’t exactly know what I was in for. It turned into a bit of mission, but Andy was kind enough to go on a wild goose chase and wrestle my bindings into submission just so I could share the pain. Waking up in the dark and meeting at 7:00am, we planned to get an early start on the day. Much to our dismay, the shitshow Andy started the night before (he said it was the longest hardest mount he has had) was continuing. My boot was at Rosenberg’s where the mounting went down so we started our day with a little morning drive while the other boys headed up to the hill. As we parked at Pole-line trailhad I realized I had forgotten my gloves, but luckily Andy had an extra pair (typical poncho), so we flipped our heelthrows and started the trek. We planned to head to Cardiff and lap until we dropped, in which case that forsaken soul would have to stand back up and finish the 10,000 vert. T’was bound to be a Gigaling good time.

Lap One! It was a perfect day to play in the mountains, splitter blue skies, perfect powder and a determination to “just keep hiking.”

Lap Two. Andy’s smiling, the legs are feeling good and about to enjoy some silky turns.

Pumping out another one! Noah feeling the burn, I had to give 'er a little to keep up with these folks.

Lap Five: Andy started wrapping his skins around his body to keep them warm and sticky. I don’t know how Andy was feeling but I sure felt like I had rocks strapped to my ankles.

Darryl, Jacobsen and Noah at our gear cache, melting some snow and staying fueled. I liked to get a little head start up the climb if I could.

There’s a Half moon rising and I’m probably about 3/4ths depleted.

(Dramatization). 9000-vert landmark, still have to hike out of this biatch, legs like lead, hips are hurting and the gas tank is empty.

Darkness approached, looks like it is going to be black to black from car to car today.

Andy hallucinating and psyched to have hit 10 gi-ga GRANDE! First time I have gotten so fully drained and even a little ataxic from a day of skiing.

Twice as much vert means twice as many burritos! The smile says it all. Can never say no to an adventure, but I can’t say I’m looking forward to hauling those super fat boards up the hill for 10,000 vert anytime soon. But if the snow is deep enough….

Thanksgiving skiing usually means sliding on manmade snow and dodging people from every direction on two or three open trails. Not so this year. Resorts opened up with more terrain than we can remember in recent history, as much as 100% in Jackson Hole. Here are two accounts from Flylow friends on their memorable opening days. Brooke Edwards reports on JH and Klara Wohlers reports on Crested Butte:

Yes, this is November in Wyoming. Photo courtesy of Julie Weinberger.

Brooke: It is not very often that one gets the opportunity to be a part of history, especially skiing history. But today for the first time ever Jackson Hole had 100% of terrain open on day one with a five foot base. The extra advantage just so happened to be that the Christmas rush hadn't started yet. Which meant only one thing: unlimited pow for everyone lucky enough to be here: locals, pass holders, the stellar athlete lineup that included Crystal Wright, Jess McMillan and Tommy Moe, and lucky tourists just happening through, like myself. The excitement was palpable as people rubbed their burning thighs and wiped the sweat from their brows as they rested up in the unusually-spacious tram. Then the doors slid open and a brisk breeze carrying in promises of tomorrow's fresh tracks could be felt while lapping Rendezvous Bowl. Thank you Jackson, for letting me be a part of your remarkable history today. It was an honor that will burn on in my thighs without a doubt!

Klara: Knee deep powder on opening day was perhaps a first at Crested Butte. Sunday through Tuesday night we got pounded—the snow was coming down and the wind was blowing hard. When opening morning on Wednesday rolled around it was only the locals and a few brave tourists standing in the cold lift line. The indescribable joy that comes from making those first few turns was magnified by the fresh blower pow. It was an amazing experience to be skiing powder again, even if it was only on a few short runs. The Red Lady lift ran like a champ, shuttling eager skiers up the mountain run after run for hours. The next two days were warm and sunny turning the powder into nicely shaped moguls and perfectly groomed corduroy. Eager skiers flocked to the mountain and played in the park, on the groomers, and in the trees.
After a great Thanksgiving the clouds rolled back in on Saturday night and it started snowing hard again on Sunday.  If the rest of the winter follows this pattern and mother nature keeps it up this winter should be amazing! This week has been one for the books and something we've been waiting for for over 5 years.

Anyone else ready to claim best Thanksgiving ever?